Tuesday, February 18, 2014

So, I had pretty much written off January. I had a late start and it was a downhill spiral towards the end with my trip.... so here is my February submission!

I have always loved the DIY t-shirts... where you take a Tee and turn it into a Tank. The problem was that I never thought a bigger girl like myself could pull it off.

Then I had that 4 size drop in 2013 that really has boosted my confidence and made me feel like now was the time to try it.

I'm still not 100% satisfied as to where my body is, but I'm beginning to feel comfortable in it and have really stopped caring about what other people think. If they stare, it's because I'm fucking fabulous!

And this is the shirt I used.... I forgot to take a "Before" picture of myself in said shirt, but let's just say that Old Navy really missed on this design... the sleeves were way too long and it hung off the shoulders like a regular shirt should... not a long-sleeve. Ugh. And of course it's no longer available to buy, so the pictures I have don't really do it justice on how to hung on me versus a hanger. Anywhoo....

I took this....

And turned it into this......

Believe it or not, the size I bought was a women's Large, which should have been sorta tight on me. But, like I said, the way the size hung it was loose under the armpits and the sleeves were at least 4" past my wrist.... it was not a pretty look. Now, I have my first homemade shirt for the summer!

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Yes, I can see that it is February 13th. It has been a whirlwind of a first half of the second month!!

Let's get the goodies out of the way before I disappoint my bestie and travel partner, Amy.

From January 30th to February 4th, I took a real roadtrip with my Pops and drove up to Chapel Hill, TN, so see my big brother and sister-in-law, whom I hadn't seen since May of 2013. (It was a 12hour plotted drive, closer to 14 including gas and pee breaks). Brian and I are extremely close, and we missed each other alot! The surprise of it all was that he thought I was bringing my husband John, so you can only imagine the reaction he had when it was Pops that looked up from the passenger seat as we pulled up!! Brian was SUPER STOKED!!

Admission time: I gained 7 pounds that weekend. We ate a TON of awesome, delicious, southern food.... but I also threw caution to the wind and ate and drank whatever it is that I wanted. Plus, I had Keurig coffee and hot chocolate almost every day! I am proud to say that as of the 10th I managed to lose that extra 7 pounds, but I know I put an inch or two back on my waist! (Damn you breakfast buffet with tons of bacon and sausage gravy!!!)

Here are some pictures from the day we spent in Nashville. We went to the Parthenon, which, aside from seeing family, was easily my most favorite part (I'm a history nerd like that!)

Me out front. I am proud of this selfie!

A cool filter on my phone kinda lit the outside up..

My brother Brian on the left, Pops on the right.

I have a handsome family! <3

Pops and I in front of a miniature cast display of the sculptures on the outside of the building.

The drive up was freezing! The "polar vortex" had just blown through Atlanta the day we drove up, so being there at 2AM that night was crazy!! Atlanta's interstates had been backed up for 11+ hours, and we were afraid that we'd hit traffic, but there was not a soul on the road that night! Although, there were literally HUNDREDSSSSSSSSS of cars that had run out of gas or gotten into an accident that lined the shoulders of I-75 all the way through!! I wish I would have taken video or a picture..... it was CRAZY!!

I also saw my first snow (on the ground) that night! Outside of Macon, GA we stopped for gas and there was at least 3" of soft, pillowy, fluffy light snow on the ground! I had never seen it before so I played like a kid on the enbankment of the gas station for like 10 minutes. Pops was amused. Luckily for our trip, we atually did NOT hit any true snow-falling weather. Just 1*F temps and some icy patches on the roads, but we purposefully drove at night so we wouldn't be worried about too many other cars on the roads.

We wrote our names in the snow! :-)

During my trip I also managed to get out 3 days and run. The first 2 were lucky as I got up around 4:30 and managed to slip out without anyone waking up or the dogs going nuts. I didn't take pictures as Chapel Hill doesn't even have a stoplight, let alone street lights lol. The one day I went during the day (when it was closer to 50*F and not 20*F) I got a shot of me pre-running UP the hill. I have to say, that was difficult. In FL we have flat land. Everywhere. So, running up a hill was a challenge. The first attempt I made it like 20' and walked the rest of the way. The second time I stopped halfway up and walked the rest. But on the third day, I pushed myself and made it up that damn hill on one try!!

From here it doesn't look so bad....

but try running UP IT! :-P

So, all in all, it was a wonderful relaxing trip. I missed my husband dearly, but enjoyed seeing family, eating great southern cooking, and spending time away from a big city. Once my brother sends pictures he took, I'll upload in here one of my brother, Pops, and myself that was from the same Nashville trip as mine.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Well, this month certainly had it's ups and downs. The date for this blog will say February 1, 2014... but in reality it's actually February 13th. Yup. It has been one of those months.To start, I was away for the first 4 days of the month. I was still on my real roadtrip to Tennessee to see my big brother. To read about that, go here. :-)Then, when I got back late morning Tuesday the 4th, after having drove home straight from TN which was about a 15 hour drive, I promptly slept for a whopping 4 hours. Yup. A cat nap. I got up, went to zumba that night, then came home and slept like a baby. Then on Wednesday I went to class like normal, and had to swing by my work to print some stuff out. Luckily I did, because I thought I had the day off (according to a text a few days prior from my A/M), but the schedule was changed and it ended up that I did work. And I also worked the rest of the week. So, long story short, my return home was not easy going nor did I slip back into routine, it was more like I was thrown off a cliff and have since been bouncing and rolling out of control down the side of the mountain.So, let's review!

- The distance from home to Crowley’s Ridge State Park in Arkansas is 849 miles.

- The distance from Crowley’s Ridge to Devil’s Den State Park (also AK) is 215 miles.

- For a total of 1,064 miles.

- Our challenge runs January 1st thru October 31st, which is 304 days.

- This means I need to walk 3.5 miles per day to hit my goal!

- Of that 3.5 miles, only half, or 1.75 miles, can come from NORMAL every day walking.

The Road So Far....

January I walked a total of 79.79 miles.My goal was 108.5 miles.I have a deficit of -28.71 miles.
Ouch. Disappointing to say the least. On a positive note, I am extremely happy to have my FitBit. All I had to do to find my distance count was go to the website and sync my FitBit. I was able to view 1/1-1/31 easily after that. It even gave me a cool chart!

Well, now I have incentive to get off my ass! Amy did a WONDERFUL job with her month! She ended up being 1.82km OVER her goal distance!!! WAY TO GO GIRL!!!!! I am very jealous that I am so far behind, but I will do my best to kick some butt in this short month and catch up!!

My maps are sad to say the least. And, I still have not finished my actual marker for the map in my office, so I will add those in when I finish that piece up. For now, I have my also sad Google Maps pictures.

:-(

Looks more impressive closer up of course. :-)

Here's to February! BTW... I'm working on a small surprise for my bestie... so SHHHHH Don't tell her! ;-)